Week 22 - Busy little bees

~Bug is 20.5 months old~

Busy… busy… busy. That is the only way to describe our home this week. Bug got his first Cat in the Hat set and loves to carry it around in the little tote that came with the order. It also came with matching cards and a nice little puzzle, both of which have been put up until we pass this destruction stage he is currently pursuing.

We actually had a few reading opportunities where Bug didn’t feel the need to flip through the pages. I think he was very interested in the rhyming in the book. It might have helped a little that mommy used different voices too.

Bug’s stacking pegs are of great interest these days. We are using them for multiple purposes since he is so interested in them. We have been counting on a daily basis up to the number five. Here we stacked the pegs with color and height and Bug pulled them away as I said the number. 

We also used the pegs as a color sorting option. His favorite color is still blue and will bring me things that are blue as he says “boo” so that I know he understands.

This week we also worked on his animal sounds… not really something that you can capture in photographs, especially when Bug will grab his animals and take off running with them. We have the Little Peoples Zoo and he has several of the animals. We’ve been hiding them around the house and asking him to find them. He will bring us the animal and either makes its sound or try to say its name. He can say gorilla, bear, and gator and although we know he can say lion he prefers to growl.

Music is always a part of our home. We sing in the car and at bedtime and play our instruments whenever the opportunity arises. The instrument that received the most attention this week was his xylophone. It came into play during laundry time and dinner time and even during potty time. 

 We got to spend some time at daddy’s work during their big career day and someone snapped this week’s favorite picture. Not sure if Bug wasn’t impressed that he was getting his picture taken or just not sure if mommy could hold him much longer.

Looking forward to what the future holds… so until then.

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Week 21 - Learning is Fun

~Bug is 20.5 months old~

Had a house full of sickness the last couple of weeks but we still got in some Tot School time. We picked up this really cute rug for our classroom. It has balls (Bugs favorite) and helps with the counting we are working on. It also provides a little warmth on the tushy during the cold months.

We have some really good friends and one of them picked up a gift for Bug. Thanks Ms. Shelba. There was a sorting bucket and stacking/nesting cups. Bug now loves to stack up the cups and then slowly walk into them and watch them fall over. The two gold pieces in his hand are coins that can be dropped into three of the buckets and if they are lined up correctly it will drop all the way through. It’s a little challenging, even for mommy. J

We finally found a tray for Bug to use when he isn’t sitting at his table. It was Cars or Elmo and he picked “vroom” and of course the “boo” (blue) one. Here is putting the tray to good use while he works on his screws. He has gotten very good at putting them together so we have started mixing the bolts up so that it is now also a color sorting game. He quickly learned that only the same color ones can go together.

The Let’s Look book from Baby Einstein’s gets a lot of use these days. The food items Bug can pick out pretty quickly. When he finds what he is looking for he gets so excited. . The difficulty level is a nice range so he will be able to use this for quite some time.

Daddy time is so precious these days. Here Bug and daddy had just finished playing and were taking a time out to rest. Bug loves to watch Veggie Tales on daddy’s iPhone. Truth be told he likes to do anything with daddy’s iPhone. Maybe there will be an iPad in Bugs future as there are so many fantastic learning apps available.  

Can’t wait to see what next week brings… so until then.

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Week 20 - What a ride?

~Bug is 20 months old~

Week 20 – where has the time gone? We introduced some new things this week in Tot School. The first new introduction was water paint. Bug LOVED painting the letter Aa as we talked about things like apples and anteaters. We also introduced play dough – although apparently more got into his mouth then we originally thought. This one might be put back on the shelf for a while.

 

We took advantage of a nice day and took a field trip to the zoo. We also got a chance to take Bug’s cousin with us and together they enjoyed looking at all the animals. We even got a chance to see the aforementioned anteater. (Not a good picture since he kept turning his backside to us)

Thanks to The Activity Mom we have a new color sorting game. Of course, we started with orange and blue (Go Gators) and although it took a little prodding Bug quickly picked up the concept.

This cool little train brought lots of smiles while we learned how to spell his name. Bug brings the train to me often and will put his finger in my hand so that I can help him pick out the correct letters.

If you haven’t had a chance to explore feelings with your child then you are missing out on so much fun. We tried using Bug’s feelings lapbook but he preferred practicing the faces in his book.

 

Lots of fun on the horizon… so until then.

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Week 19 - Cold Weather while under the Weather

~Bug is 20 months old~

This week was a toughie. Through a destructive attitude and a horrible cold we got very little done in the terms of Tot School. We did get a chance to play with Bugs stacking pegs and actually got a few of them in the right color section.

We also got some reading in with his hard books as well as some nice Bible stories.

Mom’s favorite this week: Due to the cold weather and Bug not feeling well there was a lot of snuggling this week.

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Week 18 - Music Appreciation

~Bug is 19.5 months old~

We jumped into music appreciation this week with all of Bugs musical toys. He can now identify each of his items by name but we are still working on matching them to the identification cards.

The xylophone was used to make music but also to learn colors.

Make a beautiful noise is certainly what he did with the maracas. It was hard trying to get a picture of him with them because he kept running around shaking them. I think that he enjoyed them the most.

We worked hard on his tracing this week. He is getting much better at trying to connect the objects on his letters but still loves to color like crazy.

We took some time to play Baby Einstein First Instruments. The concept is still a little lost on Bug but he really liked listening to the different instruments.

Mom’s favorite this week:

The weather has been pretty nice here lately so we took a walk and gathered leaves.

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Week 17 - Motor Skills

~Bug is 19 months old~

This week started with the sickies but that didn’t keep Bug from learning. Matter of fact, he didn’t want to leave his classroom on several occasions. Our Tot Trays are working out wonderfully and really helps keep me organized.

We added a threading activity this week with pipe cleaner and pasta. Bug really enjoyed putting the pasta on the pipe cleaner and then taking it off. He preferred it when we both did one and would show me how when I ‘forgot.’

Bug has gotten very good at putting the rings on the correct way although he insists that the orange one always goes on top. He’s also gotten very good at these nuts and bolts from the Target $1 bin. (I love that place) 

Bug wanted to do a lot of reading in his bean bag chair this week. Sometimes he lets me read to him and other times he prefers to read to himself. I was able to get this extra shot of something that he must have found really awesome in that little book of his.

Putting shapes or objects of any sort is one of his favorite activities. He has gotten very good at using this cookie jar he got for Christmas. He has mastered the round, square and triangle cookies. The star he can get with a little concentration but the heart is still a work in progress.

We had a few warm hours one day so we took advantage and went outside. We picked up leaves and swept the sidewalk. Bug even turned the landing of his slide into an activity as he pushed the leaves through the holes. I forgot to bring my camera with me so this is the only shot that I got from our fun but it is my favorite for the week.

Looking forward to what the future holds… so until then.

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Week 16 - Introducing Tot Trays

~Bug is 19 months old~

Happy New Year! This is our first week back since before Christmas and it was lots of fun. We finally introduced the Tot Tray concept and it went over pretty well. Bug was not overwhelmed with all of his Tot School toys being on the same shelf and actually helped pick some up before moving on to the next tray.

                                                                      

So here are this week’s Tot Trays:

            Top left            Color Sorting
            Top Middle       Using tongs with pom poms
            Top Right        Stacker Pegs
            Bottom Left      Nesting Bowls
            Bottom Middle Dot Painting
            Bottom Right  Shape Sorting Cube

The most exciting thing for me was the stacker pegs. I’ve wanted to add these to our collection for a while and Bug got them for Christmas. The look on his face was priceless as he discovered that he could stand them up in the holes and then pull them back out again. He did this several times just laughing the whole time.

Bug loves playing with his shape sorters. He has gotten really good with the squares and circles but still needs a little work with the stars and other odd shapes. One of his Christmas gifts was this little work bench that he can hammer shapes through. He prefers to just push them instead of using the hammer.

  

Dot painting was another big hit. He loves making marks on the paper. It make take a little longer before he gets the dots where they are supposed to be (mom did the ones you see) but he seems more eager to work on the paper now instead of just making colors.

Bug always has access to his Leapfrog doghouse and has taken a liking to the letter L. He wants everyone to see him put the letter into the doghouse and will push the button and then laugh along as it tells him about the letter.

My favorite image from our time off is this one where Bug is running away from daddy as if he will never be caught.

 Excited about what next week holds. So until then...

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